Chapter 1005 — The Noble Spirit of Heroes, Awe-Inspiring Through All Ages

Kaihuang's Junior Assistant Gao Baixun had called the monkeys out of the woods again; with the greatest reluctance they put on their robes and tall caps and listened to his impassioned lecture. "What a strange man," Shu Jun said, shaking his head. "They cannot help but be strange.

Their aspirations cannot be realized, their Dao cannot go forward, benevolence and righteousness are not practiced, and so their Dao hearts scatter. " Shen Mu said: "Investigate things to extend knowledge, know and then act, unite knowledge and action. Yet now they cannot unite the two; they know but cannot act.

You can imagine what that does to a Dao heart. " They came to Yuanming Heaven, and there met its Grand Tutor, Zhou Jingmeng.

As promised, Zhou Jingmeng was waiting for them, brimming with killing intent, vowing to avenge the Junior Assistant Gao Baixun and swearing that the Mu Heavenly Venerable should not set half a step into Yuanming Heaven. "Unless you walk over my corpse!

" cried the Grand Tutor Zhou Jingmeng, white-haired and full of righteous wrath.

After he performed the Yuanming Civil-Exaltation Sword, he fell stiffly to the ground. Shu Jun stepped over his "corpse," and the old man cursed: "You really stepped on me?

" Shen Mu bowed in thanks and went around him.

Zhou Jingmeng's spirit emerged from the "corpse" and cried: "My elder brother Zhou Xunfang will avenge me in Qiyao Heaven — just you wait!

" Shu Jun did not know whether to laugh or cry.

He turned back and asked: "How does one get to Qiyao Heaven? " "There! " Zhou Jingmeng's spirit raised a hand and pointed, crying: "Go there, if you dare! " Shen Mu and Shu Jun came to Qiyao Heaven and paid their respects to Zhou Xunfang, who meant to die a martyr for Kaihuang.

Zhou Xunfang declared his resolve by "dying," and his "death" was even more "tragic" than Zhou Jingmeng's; before expiring he told them that the Three Dukes of Kaihuang's Heavenly Court would be waiting for them in the heavens beyond. So the road went, and the two months passed quickly. Before they knew it, Shen Mu and Shu Jun had passed through Xuwu Heaven, Taiji Heaven, Chiming Heaven, Xuanming Heaven, Yaoming Heaven and others, drawing ever nearer to the summit of the Thirty-Three Heavens.

That day they came to Wushang Heaven. No sooner had they entered than Shen Mu heard a hee-hawing laugh. A donkey came trotting briskly toward them, a fishing rod tied atop its head with a radish dangling from it. It galloped up to Shen Mu and stopped short, braying with laughter: "Ee-haw, isn't this the Mu Heavenly Venerable? How come you don't recognize me?

" The donkey stood up on its hind legs, laid one thick forelimb over Shen Mu's shoulder and the other over Shu Jun's, tucked the two of them under its arms, and as slabs of muscle rippled out all over its body it brayed: "It's me, Lu Zheng! We went through hard times together! Let me tell you a secret — this Wushang Heaven is the domain of my old lady, the Heavenly Master Xi. She has been waiting for you a long while! " The donkey carried the two of them forward under its arms, chattering all the while: "The old lady says the Worry-Free Land and the Creator are at peace now, no more fighting, and that this is a great joy that must be celebrated.

These days she has been drilling some pretty girls in song and dance, and the spirit of it, I tell you — it is called Ten Thousand Ages of Great Peace. A fine sight, a truly fine sight. . . " Shu Jun, his big head clamped under the donkey's arm, his feet dangling off the ground, struggled twice and could not break free; he was shaken to the core.

He roused his spirit sense and his divine abilities, but his spirit sense could not force its way into the donkey's mind at all, which alarmed him the more: "This donkey is terrifyingly strong! " Shen Mu said quietly: "Do not resist.

This donkey is a master of the Lingxiao realm, no lesser than the lords of the heavens we just passed. " Shu Jun had no choice but to give up resisting.

He wanted to speak, but the donkey talked and laughed and brayed from time to time, giving him no opening. Shen Mu was long used to Lu Zheng's temper, and knew the donkey loved to argue; once you got into talk with him he would surely leave you half dead with frustration.

So he kept his mouth shut and let himself be carried along. Lu Zheng brought them to the divine city of Wushang Heaven, where all was gold and splendor, and countless singing girls and dancing girls were dancing in high delight, skirts flying, colored sleeves streaming, magnificent beyond words.

On the left several hundred goddesses played the flute, on the right several hundred plucked the strings, above several hundred struck the bells and chimed the stone chimes, below several hundred beat the drums and blew the sheng. The girls flew in the air and danced on the ground, crossing and weaving, their postures graceful and enchanting, their songs rising and falling in praise of Kaihuang's greatness and his godlike martial glory. Yan Yunxi, dressed in men's clothes, sat atop the city tower enjoying the song and dance, so delighted that her hands and feet danced along and she clapped without cease, while the divine officials attending her below sang his praises in turn, their flattery unending.

Lu Zheng carried the two of them up to the tower and set them down. Yan Yunxi glanced about with bright eyes and smiled: "Mu Heavenly Venerable, what do you think of this song and dance? Magnificent, is it not? Once the Other Shore and the Nether Capital are established, I mean to take these girls to Kaihuang's Heavenly Court and perform for all its civil and military officials, singing the praises of Kaihuang's great achievements. " Shen Mu smiled.

"The beauty of the dance dazzles the eye like a riot of flowers, and the wonder of the song shakes the heart. " Yan Yunxi clapped and laughed.

She shot him a glance. "What a pity — you do not know the height of heaven or the depth of earth, and yet you mean to challenge Kaihuang. You do not know that Kaihuang is the foremost man of the sword Dao, or how high his attainments in the sword truly are!

I will frighten you to death with it: Kaihuang is already pondering the twentieth sword form.

I merely performed your nineteenth sword form before him once, and he straightway grasped the twentieth. " She rose and said proudly: "That is how Kaihuang is — sagely by nature, unmatched in godlike martial prowess! So give up this treasonous notion. But of course you will not, will you?

Then let me defeat you with Kaihuang's sword art!

" She flung wide her sleeves and cried: "All of you, withdraw! I will use Kaihuang's sword art to teach the Mu Heavenly Venerable the height of heaven and the depth of earth! " The song and dance ceased; the dancers and singers withdrew one after another. Yan Yunxi drew her sword and looked at Shen Mu. Shen Mu was dumbfounded, and the words escaped him: "Even you. .

. "